Mother, Daughter Charged In Thefts

June 08, 2006|By SARAH MISHKIN; Courant Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN — A mother and daughter from East Hampton were arraigned Wednesday on charges of identity theft, larceny, and forgery for allegedly stealing mail out of roadside mailboxes and then cashing the stolen checks at drive-through teller windows in Middletown area banks.

Gail Saltus, 42, and her daughter Tasha, 21, were arraigned in Superior Court, nine months after an anonymous informer tipped off the East Hampton Police Department in October 2005 about the crimes, according to the arrest affidavit. Tasha Saltus was also charged with possession of drug paraphernalia police said theyfound in her car.

The two face similar criminal cases following arrests in Middletown and Cromwell on theft and identity theft charges, and police say they are not sure they have found all of the victims.

``They would just drive around on rural, out-of-the-way, off-the-beaten-path roads, where the driveways are lengthy and the mailboxes are far from the house, and they would grab the money and keep driving,'' East Hampton Police Chief Matthew A. Reimondo said. ``The magnitude of this is the largest we've seen.''

Whilethe women allegedly netted approximately $10,000, the tactics they used were relatively rudimentary compared to forms of online identity theft, such as soliciting account information through e-mail, said Clark Finely, a spokesman for Webster Bank.

``We are increasingly asking our customers to look at online bill pay, so that you have less information coming to your mailbox,'' he said.

Sgt. Garrit Kelly of the East Hampton Police Department said the two women used three methods to steal. They would steal one individual's check and a second individual's account number, then cash the check as the second individual by going to a drive-through teller who did not ask to see identification. They would also steal outgoing checks and overwrite them -- particularly, Garrit said, when they were made out to companies like Connecticut Light and Power Co. or AT&T whose initials are short. Ultimately, he said, they were able to use stolen bank account information to fill out withdrawal slips at banks and get money directly, without needing a check.

``It was all just by chance,'' he said of how the pair selected its victims. ``You steal enough mail, you're going to come up with these things.''

Gail Saltus has 15 prior arrests on larceny, forgery, and drug-related charges, according to the affidavit.

Garrit said his department arrested her in 2003 on similar identity theft charges, and she is still on probation, having been released from prison in June 2005.

The two will face further charges from other towns in the recent instances of alleged identity theft: acting on a tip from East Hampton police, the Wethersfield Police Departmentarrested Tasha Saltus as she allegedly triedto cash a stolen check at a Webster Bank.

The two are being held on bail of $100,000 each. Their next court date is June 14.